Open Polytechnic, New Zealand’s specialist provider of online and distance learning, has been selected by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) to develop their cross government intercultural competency programme.

Open Polytechnic will be undertaking the educational design and development of the programme content, as well as delivering the programme on its next generation online learning platform, iQualify.

Dr Caroline Seelig, Chief Executive of Open Polytechnic, says the tertiary education provider is excited to be working with MBIE on this important programme.

“Open Polytechnic has over 70 years’ experience developing high quality educational resources that help adult learners gain the skills they need to succeed in the workplace,” says Dr Seelig. “We are looking forward to putting that expertise to work to help MBIE achieve its goals of embedding intercultural skills across the State sector.”

The initial programme of work will see Open Polytechnic develop a series of online e-learning modules which cover foundation level intercultural competence topics for State sector employees. The programme is then intended to be piloted at three government departments, including MBIE.

Aside from Open Polytechnic’s expertise in educational design for online learning, the tertiary education provider’s online learning platform, iQualify, was also a key component to securing the contract.

“iQualify offers a smart solution for organisations that want access to professional development opportunities for their employees in their own time and place. iQualify can be accessed on any computer or mobile device, and can be integrated with organisation’s existing IT systems”, says Dr Seelig.

The intercultural competency pilot is expected to begin towards the end of 2018.